Arthritis is an inflammatory disease of arthroses. As main examples of arthritis, there are rheumatoid arthritis and its analogous diseases wherein inflammation is observed in arthroses.
Among them, rheumatoid arthritis, also referred to as chronic rheumatism, is polyarthritis chronica whose main lesion is inflammatory changes in synovial membrane of internal layers of articular capsules. Arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis is progressive and causes articular disorders such as articular deformation, tetany or the like. When an effective treatment is not carried out and the disease worsens, serious physical disorders are often caused.
Hitherto, in treatment of such arthritis, chemotherapy has been carried out using steroids such as adrenal cortical hormones (e.g., cortisone, etc.) or the like; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents such as aspirin, piroxicam, indometacin or the like; gold preparations such as gold thiomalate or the like; antirheumatic agents such as chloroquine preparations, D-penicillamine or the like; antipodagrics such as colchicine or the like; immunosuppressive agents such as cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, methotrexate, levamisole or the like; or the like.
However, drugs using the chemotherapy have problems such as serious side effects, side effects making their long-term use difficult, insufficient efficacy, inefficacy against arthritis which has already produced the symptoms.
Therefore, in clinical treatment of arthritis, drugs having low toxicity and excellent effects in the prophylaxis and treatment of arthritis have been required.